|
Post by RedKing on May 24, 2006 4:44:17 GMT -8
I don't know the exact date Cinema Shares put it into general release, but for me it was 30 years ago this weekend that i saw GODZILLA VS MEGALON at the drive-in on a double feature with GIANT SPIDER INVASION for my 5th birthday-an event I still remember vivdly! I was already a rabid Godzilla fan but this was the first time seeing the big guy on the (really) big screen, plus GIANT SPIDER INVASION scared the hell out of me!(hey,I was 5 and I never liked spiders! Even giant Volkswagen ones! ;D) Anyone else see megalon in the theater or drive-in in '76?
|
|
|
Post by Shonokin on May 24, 2006 8:29:20 GMT -8
I first saw it on national tv with John Belushi hosting it. I still remember that pretty well!
|
|
|
Post by Xenorama ™ on May 24, 2006 8:30:46 GMT -8
i saw it in late Sept. or early Oct. my friend Scott and i went for his 13th birthday. he would rather have seen THE ATOMIC BUS (i think that's the title). we stayed twice. other friends from school were there as well.
earlier in the year disney had re-released BAMBI and they had the poster for MEGALON up, along with lobby cards. i think i spent more time looking at those than the movie! they did show the trailer to MEGALON before the movie (this is the one with Jet Jaguar being referred to as "Robotman" and that just wound me up more to see the movie.
i was not disappointed in it all all, but age 11 is a great time to see any Godzilla movie.
|
|
|
Post by Torgaman on May 24, 2006 13:09:30 GMT -8
It's playing this Saturday here in Chicago as the late night SVENGOOLIE repeat.
|
|
|
Post by Gwangi on May 24, 2006 15:32:39 GMT -8
I saw it in early September (I think it was the Labor Day Weekend). It was on a double-bill with the original "King Kong". It sure doesn't seem like it was 30 years ago.
|
|
|
Post by Zone Fighter on May 24, 2006 16:26:38 GMT -8
My Godzilla movie watching was on television.
|
|
|
Post by Torgaman on May 25, 2006 10:56:35 GMT -8
I think it's going to get aired on the SCI-FI channel this weekend. Maybe we'll even see Jet Jaguar on ECW.
|
|
|
Post by amphiboid on May 25, 2006 21:08:36 GMT -8
Robotman! Robotman! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Sounds so funny.
Megalon is really the one I should have seen in theatres when I was a kid. I was old enough to see movies then, or at least old enough to get dropped off down at the moviehouse and picked up later. After it was gone from the theatres, a sinking feeling set in and I realized an opportunity had been lost.
After that, though, whenever a Godzilla film was in wide US release, I have made the effort to get down to the cinema and see it. In the case of Godzilla 2000, a couple of times. It was worth it to see that big old lizard stomping around. Like that fellow I was talking to that one time said, "Godzilla is Godzilla. No entertainment like it in the world."
|
|
|
Post by Xenorama ™ on May 26, 2006 8:44:29 GMT -8
amen to that. i've always made an effort to see ANY Godzilla movie in the theater that i could, even if it's a 16mm tv print being shown on the big screen.
nothing like it in the world.
|
|
|
Post by RedKing on May 26, 2006 22:26:09 GMT -8
How true! Nothing like it in the world!
I would have gone insane seeing Megalon with the original Kong when I was 5! I also wonder if Megalon played throughout the Summer of the Bicentenniel since I saw it in late May and several of you guys say it in early September or later. Probably it played different times in different parts of the country, but I do know it was tremendously succesful for Cinema Shares! It also helped kick off the late 70s-early 80s spike in Godzilla's popularity here in the US which led to the other Cinema Shares releases, TERROR OF MG's release,the Marvel comic and the HB cartoon(both of which I loved as a kid and still love today) and other stuff like the Shogun Warriors fist shooting figure, the Godzilla vs the Tricephalon playset(boy, I wish i still had mine!!) and the Mattel board game.
I also tried to see any Godzilla movie in the theatre and was able to see Megalon at the drive-in, COSMIC MONSTER twice, MONSTER ISLAND, G85 and G2000 3 times. I just wished I lived closer to some of the places that screen the films today.
|
|
|
Post by Zone Fighter on May 27, 2006 8:01:46 GMT -8
There hadn't been a Godizlla movie on the bigscreen here for decades so I was surprised when Godzilla 2000 was at a local theater. Of course I went to it, even though I hated the 80s and 90s films.
|
|
|
Post by Gwangi on May 27, 2006 8:55:07 GMT -8
How true! Nothing like it in the world! I would have gone insane seeing Megalon with the original Kong when I was 5! I’ve never been the same since! I was eight when I saw both "Megalon" and the original "King Kong". My parents took me and my sisters to see it. The folks, bless them, were never kaiju fans, (my mother, however did like “Godzilla, King of the Monsters” when she saw it as a child in the 1950s). But everyone in the family enjoyed the show. I remember when “Megalon” was on, the crowd was cheering for Jet Jaguar and Godzilla, and I never heard a crowd cheer in a theater before, with the exception when the great white in “Jaws” got blown up!
|
|
|
Post by Xenorama ™ on May 27, 2006 13:46:12 GMT -8
a new tag line- "Godzilla- nothing like it in the world" (or something like that).
there was lots of cheering in MEGALON, but nothing like the packed theaters of kids cheering for King Kong when he did his hulk up and beat Godzilla at the end of KING KONG VS GODZILLA- the place went nuts, even when we KNEW what was going to happen. the WHOLE place cheered.
even when i realized later on Godzilla turned 'good' we still had to cheer for Kong.
|
|
|
Post by August on Nov 22, 2006 2:29:33 GMT -8
GODZILLA VS. MEGALON opened in Northern California on June 16, 1976 -- and I was there (at the now-defunct Coliseum Theater here in San Francisco).
|
|
|
Post by stareater on Dec 12, 2006 19:53:40 GMT -8
I don't know the exact date Cinema Shares put it into general release, but for me it was 30 years ago this weekend that i saw GODZILLA VS MEGALON at the drive-in on a double feature with GIANT SPIDER INVASION for my 5th birthday-an event I still remember vivdly! I was already a rabid Godzilla fan but this was the first time seeing the big guy on the (really) big screen, plus GIANT SPIDER INVASION scared the hell out of me!(hey,I was 5 and I never liked spiders! Even giant Volkswagen ones! ;D) Anyone else see megalon in the theater or drive-in in '76? Giant Spider Invasion! I've been wearning out my MST3K disc of that the past few weeks. " 'If you had a bucket . . . no, a barrell-full of these . . .' You'd be a fat cheesehead with a barrell-full of these!" - Tom Servo from MST3K Giant Spider Invasion
|
|
|
Post by amphiboid on Dec 13, 2006 13:17:29 GMT -8
I remember very clearly seeing the TRAILER for Godzilla vs. Megalon...this was one evening when I had gone with a school chum to some cheese-ball fest...
I don't remember what movie we were seeing that evening, and maybe that says something about it. It SEEMS TO ME that this was in 1977 or 1978...I could be wrong. But I do remember what a shock it was seeing images of Godzilla on the big screen for the first time--and perhaps it was that shock that made me avoid seeing the movie in theatres. I was accustomed to seeing the big lizard on TV! And I don't think another Godzilla film hit the big screen over here until Godzilla 1985...
|
|
|
Post by Xenorama ™ on Dec 14, 2006 8:45:01 GMT -8
i can still remember vividly the feeling of seeing the trailer to GODZILLA VS MEGALON, in front of BAMBI- i stayed through just to see the trailer again. i knew who Gigan was, but had never seen him in action, nor had i seen Megalon or Jet Jaguar ("Robotman" as the trailer called him then) and COULD NOT WAIT to see this movie.
i was not let down. perfect age to see this movie- 11.
|
|
|
Post by amphiboid on Dec 14, 2006 14:07:55 GMT -8
Around the mid-70's--I remember it was around 1975 because of the area on the playground they let us run around in...(the first-graders through second-graders got the east side of the field; the mid-graders got the middle, and the fifth and sixth graders got the far west side nearest the street...it's not important but it's good detail).....
Well anyway I had gone to Little Tokyo or J-Town as we called it then, had gone to the original Pony Toys with my family, and we got a little box of Godzilla books, picture books. And there were photos in there like you wouldn't believe. These were like Reader's Digest sized things, mostly color pages with some Japanese text, so impossible to read for me. But man, the pictures. If I had these little books today I imagine they'd probably be worth something. Lost to time... Pictures from Smog Monster, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Gigan, beautiful color shots. Wonder if anyone knows the books I'm talking about...they probably made dozens of different softcover books but maybe someone can tell me what these things were. Anyway, they were cool.
|
|
|
Post by Lunkhead on Mar 2, 2007 6:23:43 GMT -8
This is such a fun film, and I just love Jet Jaguar. Has it ever gotten a decent, widescreen release on DVD? I have the old Goodtimes VHS of it (a double feature of GODZILLA VS MEGALON and THE SNOW CREATURE).
|
|
|
Post by Zone Fighter on Mar 2, 2007 10:10:31 GMT -8
It still hasn't been released on DVD. Next one is is going to be Godzilla Raids Again. Hopefully then they'll release Godzila vs. Megalon and Terror of Mechagodzilla.
|
|
|
Post by Lunkhead on Mar 2, 2007 11:10:28 GMT -8
Thanks.
|
|